Poll

Relocating businesses to free up sites for housing can make sense

Date: 14/10/2016

Planning magazine reports that London's deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe, has indicated that a "more rigorous approach" will be applied to releasing industrial sites for housing in the next London Plan - due to be published in draft form next autumn - as part of efforts to double the level of new home delivery.

Mike Kiely, Chair of the Board at the Planning Officers Society, said the 2012 Olympics showed that it is possible to successfully relocate businesses to free sites up for other uses. "It may well be that there are areas that are successful industrial areas but which would make more sense to be used for housing," he said. However, he cautioned that businesses dependent on a localised workforce could be ruined by poorly thought through relocations.